A-bomb inventor Philip Morrison, April 22

AP, family, file

Philip Morrison, one of the inventors of the atomic bomb and an early leader in the search for intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, died in his sleep at his Cambridge, mass., home on Friday, April 22, 2005. He was 89. Morrison was a group leader during the Manhattan Project, which launched the age of nuclear weapons, and was present for the detonation of the first atomic bomb on July 14, 1945 in New Mexico. ``We knew we had done something remarkable and terrifying,'' he later recalled. He also helped assemble the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, and was part of a scientific team sent to assess bomb damage after Japan's surrender ended World War II. The damage that he saw from conventional and atomic bombs convinced him of the need for arms control.

Philip Morrison, one of the inventors of the atomic bomb and an early leader in the search for intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, died in his sleep at his Cambridge, mass., home on Friday, April 22, 2005. He was 89. Morrison was a group leader during the Manhattan Project, which launched the age of nuclear weapons, and was present for the detonation of the first atomic bomb on July 14, 1945 in New Mexico. ``We knew we had done something remarkable and terrifying,'' he later recalled. He also helped assemble the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, and was part of a scientific team sent to assess bomb damage after Japan's surrender ended World War II. The damage that he saw from conventional and atomic bombs convinced him of the need for arms control. (AP, family, file)

Philip Morrison, one of the inventors of the atomic bomb and an early leader in the search for intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, died in his sleep at his Cambridge, mass., home on Friday, April 22, 2005. He was 89. Morrison was a group leader during the Manhattan Project, which launched the age of nuclear weapons, and was present for the detonation of the first atomic bomb on July 14, 1945 in New Mexico. ``We knew we had done something remarkable and terrifying,'' he later recalled. He also helped assemble the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, and was part of a scientific team sent to assess bomb damage after Japan's surrender ended World War II. The damage that he saw from conventional and atomic bombs convinced him of the need for arms control.